Review: All The Living And The Dead by Hayley Campbell

cover of All the Living and the DeadAll the Living and the Dead: From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life’s Work by Hayley Campbell 
St. Martin’s Press (August 2022) 
288 pages; $21.49; $19.00 paperback; $14.99 e-book 
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

None of us are born with the knowledge of death. We have to stumble upon a fallen bird fluttering its wings, desperate to live. Or we lose a grandparent, a sibling, a classmate, and someone breaks the news: the deceased, those “in a better place,” won’t, can’t, ever come back.

The author of All the Living and the Dead, Hayley Campbell, couldn’t pinpoint the moment she learned of death. She tells readers she can’t recall a time before death, stating, “Death was just there, everywhere, always.”Continue Reading